Hibernation Thursday

Today, I don't exist. I'm hiding. (Yeah, I know, some of you wish you could do that, but hey, being old and decrepit has its priviledges!) I've closed my windows and doors, turned on the A/C "down" to 75 and took my phone off the hook. After several days of being hot and sticky from not running the A/C (trying to conserve energy), I have to have one day of comfort. I've not been able to get enough rest since I got back from my trip. It's not that I did anything physically exhausting, I hardly slept a wink on that bed in the hotel room and was in agony every morning. I didn't complain too much because I didn't want Betty to feel bad, who, by the way, is still not feeling as well as she had hoped. Her mom is staying with her and when I just tried to look in on her, Betty was in the bedroom trying to sleep. Poor thing! It's not getting easier with age. The body simply doesn't heal as quickly as when we were young.

My Hep C condition causes me to be overly tired anyhow, so I have to make sure I get adequate rest. I have a doctor's appointment for next week since I'm unable to get my liver biopsy/test results interpreted until I see him. I will keep you abreast. I'm hoping it's not too bad, because it's been a month since the liver biopsy and I figure if it were serious, they surely would have contacted me by now instead of me having to hunt down my test results, but one just never knows. Mistakes get made all the time. I don't want to be one of them. So, I decided to be a proactive patient. I know some doctors don't like it, but that's just too bad.

My cherry tomatoes are making slow progress (later on I'll thin/space the seedlings out a bit) and Mr. Smokey Robinson, one of our "community cats" has decided that my front porch is his permanent home, which is fine by me.

I just don't want the neighbors to pitch a fit over it. I still feed the cats away from the apartments, off in the woods, so that there won't be a bunch of them congregating at my front door. God forbid, or else we'd probably get another visit from those killer pitbulls that came through a while back and killed four of them. I still say that was planned because those dogs have not been seen since.

On Monday I had to do a little grocery shopping and stopped at the "U-Pick" strawberry field and bought some freshly picked strawberries. They usually have some for sale that were picked fresh that morning because I could not pick very many with my bad back.

I want to go back one more time because strawberry season isn't very long. It ends mid or end of May and I want some more for my freezer. By the end of May the blueberries should be getting ripe and I will definitely buy a bunch of those because I love them even more than the strawberries.

I will have to do some research to find out if - or where - there are raspberry bushes because I love those the best, only I've not seen any. I figure since blackberries grow wild all around me, surely the raspberries must grow here as well. We had tons of those growing on our property where I grew up in Germany and really enjoyed them. This is a question to my German friends: Do you remember Himbeersaft? (thick raspberry syrup) I love that stuff. I buy it sometimes at the GermanDeli.com, but if I know it's in the house, I just have to use it on everything! It reminds me of my Oma (grandma) because she'd make that raspberry flavored pudding, poured it in pretty glass dishes and after it was chilled and set, she'd turn it over a plate and drizzle that raspberry syrup over it...that was always my favorite treat and to this day I still love the raspberry and strawberry puddings. Strange how we associate certain foods with home. Certain foods just make me feel close to my Oma (who raised me) even though she's been long gone - only she lives in my heart forever! (That reminds me, I still have one strawberry pudding left. I should make it to go with my fresh strawberries.)

Wishing you all a peaceful day.

I'm game!

I normally don't do this, but this sounds like fun. I was given the Kreativ Blogger award by Krafty Max Originals.

The rules to accepting this award state that I have to tell 7 things that most people don't know about me and then pass it along to 7 bloggers who have Kreativ Blogs!

Since I happen to think that all my followers have creative blogs, just go ahead, grab the Award and play the game.





Here I go:

1. I can write with both hands simultaniously, only the left hand writes in mirror image.

2. I served a 3-year apprenticeship with a law firm in Nuremberg (Germany) to become a Legal Aid

3. I am very good at playing Table Football (Kicker.)

4. I worked as a licensed Pharmacy Technician and also a Legal Secretary.

5. Aside from living in Germany for the first 18 years of my life, I spent time in Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Canada and Mexico. I lived in California for 30 years and have visited many states of the USA (I love to travel and discover new places.)

6. I had my own petsitting business, taking care of dogs, cats and birds.

7. I can play the accordeon

OK, your turn!

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Just for laughs

My friend in California sent this to me and I really like it. I needed this today. I want to pass it on to those of you that have not seen it before. It's all clean fun. Enjoy!

Our friends in Ireland have the lowest
stress rate because they do not take
medical terminology serious ...

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Artery ............................ The study of paintings

Bacteria ........................... Back door to cafeteria

Barium ............................ What doctors do when patients die

Benign ............................. What you be, after you be eight

Caesarean Section ......... A neighborhood in Rome

Cat scan ........................... Searching for Kitty

Cauterize .......................... Made eye contact with her

Colic ................................. A sheep dog

Coma ................................. A punctuation mark

Dilate ................................ To live long

Enema .............................. Not a friend

Fester ................................ Quicker than someone else

Fibula ............................... A small lie

Impotent ........................... Distinguished, well known

Labour Pain ..................... Getting hurt at work

Medical Staff ................... A Doctor's cane

Morbid .............................. A higher offer

Nitrates .......................... .. Cheaper than day rates

Node .................................. I knew it

Outpatient ........................ A person who has fainted

Pelvis ............................... Second cousin to Elvis

Post Operative ............... A letter carrier

Recovery Room .............. Place to do upholstery

Rectum ............................ Nearly killed him

Secretion .......................... Hiding something·

Seizure .............................. Roman emperor

Tablet ................................. A small table

Terminal Illness ................. Getting sick at the airport

Tumour ............................. One plus one more

Urine .................................. Opposite of you're out

A BEAUTIFUL MESSAGE ABOUT GROWING OLD:

Crap .....

I forgot what it was....

 

Unless...

Today I'm reminded once more of Dr. Seuss' book called "The Lorax" (one of my favorites) because of the trees that have been chopped down recently at my apartment complex and at this continued crazy fixation about people wanting to cut down all the trees. What's up with that? Hasn't anyone learned anything?

I guess we deserve what we get in the end...and I'm glad I'll be dead and gone when that happens, because it won't be much longer with these disasters happening all around us, many of them due to mankind.

And we are supposed to be the superior species? I think animals have more sense than people sometimes.

Excuse me for ranting, but I'm in one of those moods - I'm struggling with the heat and my front porch is hotter than hell in the afternoon. I hope my little seedlings survive. It's not been fun out there since my shade trees have been gone, buh, humbug!

Other than that...

I took the plunge!

I finally committed myself (no, not there, although I should) to a weight loss program - again - since I have to lose weight if I want to live a little longer. I can't leave my boy and besides, I have some friends now who need me and maybe, later on, my daughter in California might need me too. She's going through her own problems and is a lot like me in that when I'm not feeling well, I tend to become an intravert and seclude myself from social activities as much as possible in an erroneous attempt to hybernate through my problems, so I can't blame her for doing that. It must be hereditary.

Today, I joined Weight Watchers online, because that's the only program I can actually live with. The nearest Weight Watcher's meeting entails driving a 40 mile round trip, so I chose to join online. My regular weigh in day will be Sunday. I'm setting small goals to not intimidate myself with high weight loss numbers, because I have a long ways to go.

If there is anyone out there amongst my bloggie friends - or anyone else - who wants to be my weight loss buddy, I would be very, very appreciative, because I really do much better with a buddy or two or more (hint, hint!) So, if you are at all interested in seriously losing weight, won't you please be my partner and maybe we can help each other.

You can chose any weight loss program you want, but if you were to select the Weight Watcher's plan, then we could help each other even better (I think) because I'm quite familiar with that program. I just can't seem to stick with it all by myself. I already eat a basically healthy diet, but eating healthy alone is not enough - you have to still exercise constraint and not overeat according to one's activity levels. I have a very slow metabolism and since I am more sedentary now than in my younger years, the weight just clings to me and won't budge.

Wish me luck! The reason I am announcing this is so that I will not throw in the towel and give up, because now that I have openly announced this to the world, it would be more difficult - and ultimately embarrassing - for me to stop my weight loss journey!

Here's my WW blog:

Becoming fit for 60

Happy Johnny...ahem, Sunday!

Looking at him always fills me with an unexpected jolt of energy - all you ladies who adore him know what I'm talking about.

In case you want to keep up with Johnny Depp's latest movie projects, etc., click on his admirer's website.
(admire=to regard with wonder, pleasure, or approval)

(Why is it that whenever I dwell on his looks, I suddenly get the urge to diet?)

Still going - going - tired

First of all thanks for all your kind comments. I promise to catch up with all your blogs in the next couple of days. I'm just a bit worn out. I can't believe I slept till 9 am this morning and am ready for a nap. I rushed over to Betty's mom (who is also my neighbor). Golie is the sweetest little ole lady you'd ever want to know. She's soft spoken and kind. I wrote a post about all her lovely bedspreads not too long ago. Here's the link to my post if you want to look at

Miss Golie's bedspreads

The last thing Betty made me promise before they rolled her into surgery was to look in on her 88 year old mom and help her walk Mitzi. Below left is a photo taken last fall showing Miss Golie with her dog Sady who has passed over the Rainbow Bridge since then. On the right is Mitzi modeling one of my crocheted doggy coats. Mitzi's half Poodle and half Pekingese, but everyone thinks she's a Shih Tzu.

I took Gizzy to the Vet's this morning, because he's been shaking his head for the past week. I removed a small tick out of one ear recently, so I wanted to be sure that it's all gone. The Vet gave him a clean bill of health with the instructions to treat his ears with the Tresaderm drops that I already had at home. I just don't want to jeopardize Gizzy's already diminishing hearing. Guess how much he weighed? 10.4 lbs. - isn't that just perfect? (10-4, over and out!) He also needed his blood test for his heartworm meds that he's on year-round. After all, we do live in Skeeter Country - and I have the lumps and bumps to proove it.

On the way back I picked up lunch for Miss Golie and me. She loves KFC, especially when they're having a special. I also stopped at my friend's outdoor vegetable stand and purchased a watermelon (pictured below) plus a few other veggies since I was all out. He also started to grow some veggies on his land for selling and I look forward to buying them from him, because he doesn't treat with chemicals. He raised these teeny, tiny red potatoes on the right. Aren't they cute? They're about 1.5" or so in diameter, maybe the size of a water chestnut. I'm having some of those for dinner tonight.

Also, while I was gone, my cherry tomatoes sprouted in the hanging basket and my poor ole Aloe Vera plant got burned - ouch! It's too heavy for me to move, so I'll either have to carefully separate it into different pots or ask my friend to carry it around to the back for me when he stops by the next time, but it really does need to be transplanted. I'm so afraid of breaking it, though, and that's why I've been avoiding it for so long.

Now, I have to excuse myself because this ole gal needs a nap. Gizzy's been sleeping a lot too, but that's normal for him. The Vet said it's to be expected at his age (12, going on 13.)